keskiviikko 29. huhtikuuta 2015

Smarter than 99% of people

I took an IQ test. It said that my IQ is 135, which means that I'm supposed to be "smarter" than 99% of people.

I felt vaguely sceptical, so I started reading about intelligence. Well, it turns out that being smart has very little to do with IQ. People with high IQ's are not any better than other people when it comes to thinking rationally and knowing when you lack knowledge; it seems that in some ways, the average high IQ individual is even more idiotic and irrational than the average person. "Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons."

Turns out that what actually makes people smart is wisdom. And turns out that wisdom has nothing to do with IQ. Wisdom is emotional maturity, empathy, intellectual humility and having a realistic understanding of your own abilities.

My high IQ means that I'm smart in some ways. But I'm not wise, yet. (It's possible, though, that my high IQ could make me faster at becoming wise, if I consciously make it my project.)

The good news: based on this information, making the whole species less idiotic is actually very possible. And this has nothing to do with maths. Let people (especially kids, but also adults) play in an unstructured environment, a lot, every day. Less work, less studying, more play. Also: meditation.

1 kommentti:

  1. Is 'being part of the 1%' becoming a theme of this blog?

    Seriously, if there was _a truly intelligent and rational creature_, compared to it I would be about as smart as a bug is compared to me.

    VastaaPoista